Great Lakes Builders replaced structurally unsound brick foundation walls in our early 1900's home. They completed the work on schedule and on budget. After the structural work was complete, Great Lakes Builders finished our basement. They were wonderful about helping us design the space and also about completing the project in such as manner that the basement truly feels like a part of the main house. The basement work included a full bathroom. We would highly recommend Great Lakes Builders for any structural or remodeling work or any other work that they set out to do. They are very professional and provide high quality work at a fair price.
I have worked with many contractors over the years.I have never encountered a company like Great Lakes Builders.They are simply extraordinary on every level.Great Lakes Builders are consummate professionals from their business approach to keeping a safe and clean work site.Choosing a good contractor for a structural repair is daunting.In our project, Great Lakes Builders literally held up the building and lifted it in places to solve some tricky structural defects.They replaced failing wood beams and columns with new steel ones.In work like this, you need a contractor to be experienced and exact.Martin Lewandowski is a master at his craft.I would use him again in a heartbeat.
All in all, Great Lakes Builders are true experts in their field.They are patient, friendly, and empathic to the homeowner’s concerns.They exceeded my expectations by helping me sort out many of the renovation problems I encountered that were outside their original scope of work. I would highly recommend Great Lakes Builders to anyone with a challenging renovation project.
We were referred to Great Lakes Builders for an important structural project with a very strict timetable. We had to have a contractor that we could rely on to complete the work correctly, in a professional manner, with a concern for safety, on time and within budget. We found this in Great Lakes Builders. After using them for structural repairs on two of the buildings we manage, we feel confident in recommending Great Lakes Builders.
I want to thank Great Lakes Builders for their effort and expertise in finding a solution for and repairing a structural problem in the house I recently purchased, and for completing the structural repairs by my scheduled move-in date. I was impressed by Great Lakes Builders' ability and willingness to explore a number of different options for the structural repairs and pricing out each option for me to review so that I could make an informed decision. I'm very satisfied with the results of the work and thankful that the job was completed on time and within my budget.
Martin will soon begin directing his third project at our home. In the planning stages, Martin is a very good listener. He tries to understand our desires and not immediately impose his own ideas. He is also practical. He has told us several times that an expense was not necessary.
In the building stage, Martin brings breadth of knowledge and tremendous attention to detail. His knowledge runs from structurally reinforcing a house to adding a small piece of trim to a kitchen cabinet. He considers even the smallest details.
We feel fortunate to have found a builder who treats our home as if it was his own.
Martin Lewandowski and the entire staff at Great Lakes Builders are the most professional, honest and service oriented contractors we have ever met. We can’t say enough about them. They have an integrity that’s a throwback to previous generations. We relied on them for a number of projects and they always exceeded our expectations.
We selected Great Lakes Builders, through a referral from a Structural Engineer, to perform some major structural repairs to our Victorian home. We are very happy with the outcome of their work and highly recommend them.
I was very impressed with Martin. He met my needs in terms of arranging a time to come to the house to give me an estimate of the cost of the project as well as a time when he would be able to perform the work. Martin did an excellent job performing the work that my structural engineer recommended and then he went above and beyond the original scope of the project by replacing/repairing joists that he thought needed it, and he did it at no extra cost to me.
I came back to town as he was finishing the project so that I could paint the basement wall that Martin needed to make a hole in to get access to the crawl space. Martin repaired the hole as part of the project, but then he also took the time to match the paint and painted the repaired wall. That was a lovely surprise for me not to have to do that work! I am very impressed with that level of commitment to a project.
When I subsequently put the house back on the market and sold it, the house inspector, who had done a previous inspection of that house with a previous potential buyer, was very impressed with the work that had been done. The sale subsequently went through without a hitch. I have already given Martin's name and number to one of my former neighbors who had a beam and column problem as well. I would recommend Great Lakes Builders to anybody who wants to have quality work performed by professionals at a reasonable price.
Great Lakes Builders expertly raised our sunken house and replaced our rain-damaged foundation sill plates, thus restoring level floors, windows, and doors. Great crew, too!
In March of 2004, the City of Des Plaines cited my strip mall as being uninhabitable due to dangerous structural conditions. The dangers stemmed from an improperly designed and constructed 125-foot canopy that was on the verge of separating from the building to the point of collapse. The structural connection of the canopy to the building was not properly designed to support the canopy’s weight. As a result of the improper design and construction, I needed to quickly find a structural engineer to re-design the structural elements to properly support the canopy and also find a contractor that specialized in structural repairs.
I didn’t want to randomly select someone out of the phone book, so I asked the structural engineer for some contractors that he had worked with in the past.He gave me the names of a few contractors including Great Lakes Builders, Inc.I had each company quote the job according to the structural engineer’s design so that all companies were quoting from the same specifications.Upon reviewing the quotes and discussing the project with the contractors, I was confident that Great Lakes Builders would be the correct choice so I awarded them the project.
During the three-week repair process, there were no complaints from the tenants and the tenant’s were able to keep their businesses open to the public. Each day after work was complete, the area was swept and all construction debris was removed from the site.
Throughout the entire repair process, Martin Lewandowski, Manager of Field Operations with Great Lakes Builders, personally kept me up to date with project status reports and showed me several examples of where they used upgraded materials.These upgrades included thicker plywood, thicker roofing materials, and additional structural supporting elements that added to Great Lakes Builders’ cost, not mine.Great Lakes Builders’ quote included some additional beneficial items that none of the other contractors included in their quotes, such as wrapping the columns in brick as opposed to Dri-Vit. The brick turned out to look very good and will stand up better than Dri-Vit over time considering Martin’s point that shopping carts can and will dent Dri-Vit.
The silver lining to my mall’s structural problem was finding and using Great Lakes Builders to implement the structural repairs.Martin’s actions convinced me that Great Lakes Builders is a company with integrity that will go the extra mile to get the job done right, on time and within budget. Great Lakes Builders planning, workmanship and ingenuity enabled my tenants to keep their retail outlets open for business throughout the entire repair process. Great Lakes Builders treated my project like they were working on their own property.They treated me with respect and didn’t “talk-down” to me.My mall is now structurally sound and it looks great!I would recommend Great Lakes Builders to anyone and would not hesitate to use them again in the future.Great Lakes Builders are true professionals and experienced craftsmen.
